Pied Piper of Bollywood

Pied Piper of Bollywood • Hrithik’s Extra Role • Item Now, Item Not

Only Ranbir Kapoor could have got Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma together in the same room. All three actresses—who have, at some point or the other, been linked to him romantically—showed up at his home last Thursday for a party to ring in his 30th birthday. While eyewitnesses claim Katrina and Anushka merrily chatted with each other during the course of the evening, one hears Deepika was busy catching up with her Love Aaj Kal director Imtiaz Ali through most of the party.

Katrina and Deepika have never been friends, what with persistent rumours that Ranbir moved straight on to Katrina after splitting with Deepika. But the industry grapevine insists that Deepika can now safely add Anushka to the list of actresses who’re unlikely to warm up to her. For one, Anushka can’t possibly be pleased that Deepika ended up landing Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram Leela, which Anushka was reported to have been originally offered along with then-boyfriend Ranveer Singh. Subsequently Bhansali replaced the Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi star with Kareena Kapoor, and finally signed Deepika for the film after Kareena walked out.

To add insult to injury, there have been persistent rumours that Ranveer is showing considerable interest in Deepika lately. The pair has been spotted at coffeeshops and movie screenings together. But according to Ranveer, he’s only acting on the orders of Bhansali, who encouraged him to get to know his co-star better before they embark on a long and intense shoot.

Now insiders are saying Ranveer and Anushka are officially over. And that his closeness to Deepika might have a lot to do with this.

Vivek Oberoi (remember him?) describes Hrithik Roshan as “the highest paid assistant director” in Bollywood. The Company star, who plays chief baddie to Hrithik’s superhero in Krrish 3, says the light-eyed star may have been the highest paid artiste on the set, but insists his involvement in the film far exceeded his role as an actor. Vivek claims Hrithik actively assisted his filmmaker father Rakesh Roshan on the sets, even on days when he wasn’t shooting.

On one particular occasion, when Vivek was scheduled to film a particularly challenging action scene, he says he phoned Hrithik and revealed his anxiety to the star, who promptly showed up on the set to motivate Vivek, although it was his day off. Describing his own character Kaal as the film’s “supervillain”, Vivek has revealed to close friends that he offered to do the film for free when Roshan Sr told him he’d written the part with him in mind.

Surely it’s been a while since anyone showed that kind of confidence in Vivek, whose career all but collapsed two years ago after the complete failure of Ram Gopal Varma’s ambitious two-parter Rakhta Charitra, which itself came on the heels of a string of flops.

A top actress (although her star has been in decline since a recent ‘scandal’) is reportedly holding up the makers of a new film, neither committing firmly nor turning down an offer they’ve made to her to do a sizzling item number in their production. A source close to the star reveals that she’s still waiting to be confirmed for a huge project opposite an A-list male actor she’s recently become quite friendly with. If she does land the female lead in this entertainer, there’s a good chance she’ll turn down the item song since she’ll no longer be anxious for visibility. Until then, she’s allegedly keeping the makers of that film dangling, requesting more time to consider their offer, and making all sorts of excuses to kill time. The filmmakers appear to have figured out her strategy and are apparently waiting patiently for her to make a decision. If she turns down their offer eventually, they’ve decided to expose her manipulations to the press.

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Rajeev Masand

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